Summer is when the city blossom—colors flourish in the form of flowery sundresses, tank tops, and sandals against gotham’s icy glass towers, while grey streets mushroom with green awnings and blue umbrellas as outdoor cafes sprout.  New York’s summer traditions include the outdoor Midsummer Swing Festival at Lincoln Center, The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park, and a range of free concerts throughout the city’s five boroughs.  One of New York City’s unique treats is the array of art exhibits, many of which are free and open to the public.  Fashion Reverie is delighted to keep you “in the know” with our Summer Artists Series.

We begin with our discussion with Jan Staller, whose work is currently on exhibit at the Art and Picture Collection of the Mid-Town New York Public Library.

The exhibit, More than a Passing Glance, showcases some of Jan Staller’s photographs of construction sites, parking lots, boat yards, scrap metal yards, and other man-made settings. Arézoo Moseni curates the exhibit by the well-known photographer whose work, over the past thirty years, has captured vestiges of the industrial age and man-made fragments, both large and small, rendering them into otherworldly landscapes and unexpected yet lyrical abstractions.

Published in 1988, Jan Staller’s first book, “Frontiers New York,” captures images of the city’s barren streetcorners, subways cars, toll booths and the once desolate Westside Highway with the quizzical eye of an alien who had ventured from outer space to record    life in gotham for the first time, but had landed in the wee hours of the night. The images, somewhat apolocalyptical, echo scenes from the “Bladerunner”—portends of human existence, great structures, engineering, and beauty, amid wreckage, unfinished work and abandonment.  In Staller’s second book, “On Planet Earth” published in 1997 (with an intro by Luc Sante), the alien visits again, but this time across the US and the world to find odd works of art in the form of abandoned factories, military test sites, and power plants.

Fashion Reverie: Jan, let’s trace back to the beginning.  How did the two of you meet, that is, you and the camera?

 Jan Staller: My father was a serious photo hobbyist back in the 1950s and 60s and he had sophisticated cameras and a darkroom. This was quite unusual in those days, as most consumers would be using simple box cameras and having their photographs processed at a drugstore or camera store. So I was introduced to the technical side of the medium at an early age. In addition, my father subscribed to numerous photography magazines and purchased books about the practice and art of photography.

 FR: As a young artist, who were your early inspirations?

Jan Staller: Photographers such as Lewis Baltz, Richard Misrach, Joel Meyerowitz and Rheinhart Wolf were inspirational to me.

FR: Curators and followers often allude to the shift in your work toward greater abstraction. Why the shift?

Jan Staller: In more than 30 years of working, I feel that my work has followed a trajectory. I wouldn’t be satisfied making similar photographs of similar subjects. The kind of subjects I am drawn to have a clear connection because it is the same mind following its own interest, but over time my interest evolves and I am led through my work to make new discoveries about the medium.  I simply follow my interests and curiosity and by doing that, my work keeps developing.

FR: Why landscapes—large, small, some natural, but most often man-made?

Jan Staller: Construction sites and industrial objects have always attracted me. Beyond the intense inspiration that things and places can bring to me, I am at a loss to explain the interest.

FR: Color and light are very distinctive in your work.  In the past, you’ve worked with large stadium lights.  Your recent pictures have involved more flat, white daytime light.  Would you explain how and why this evolution has come about?

Jan Staller: For many years I was interested in massive industrial forms which had often been rendered in my images with a bold prominence in the surrounding landscape. I preferred an uncluttered look to the backgrounds. In my earlier work, it had been my custom to photograph my subjects with a mixture of artificial and natural light.  Initially, I used available lighting- the street lights of NYC. Later, I used two large metal halide lights- the kind found at sports stadiums to illuminate my subjects at twilight.  In more recent times, I tend to photograph in natural light, particularly overcast and rainy days when the light quality is even and shadowless. I have also moved my camera closer to my subjects in effect distilling their essence into a more pure formal statement.

FR: What challenges to see you ahead for yourself?

Jan Staller: The challenges have long been the same. Keep looking and stay curious about the world.

FR:  What do you think of change, that is, change in technology in relation to photography?

The changes in photography have more to do with quantity than quality. Always a machine driven medium, the photographic apparatus, when used by someone with a modicum of technical ability could make images which previously were only made by someone with the ability to paint or draw. From its inception the photographic processes have become ever easier and ever cheaper with greater numbers of images generated with each new simpler device. Today, anyone can make pictures and they are seen everywhere.  The digital age has had similar effects on music and writing: it’s much easier to produce and distribute works in these media. Alas, the challenges of making great art are unchanged and for all the work produced today the proportions of good art to bad are probably the same.

Digital processes have added a plasticity to the medium allowing greater control over how images can be rendered. On occasion I make use of digital tools in producing my work.

FR: Do you have words you’d like to share with aspiring photographers out there?

Jan Staller: Keep looking and stay curious about the world. Regularly look at other artists’ work at the galleries. Try not to directly repeat the work of others.

More than a Passing Glance will be on exhibit until August 22, 2012 at The Art Collection on the 3rd floor Mid-Manhattan Library, 40th Street @ 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10016, 212-340-0871. The Art Wall on Third Exhibition series at the library is curated by Arézoo Moseni.  Jan Staller’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, Whitney Museum of American Art, New Museum in NYC, Brooklyn Museum, International Center of Photography, New York Historical Society, Corcoran Gallery in DC, Basel Art Fair, National Museum of Art of South Korea, among others. To learn more about Jan Staller, please visit janstaller.net.

— Jeanine Jeo-Hi Kim